Justice Stephen Breyer has taken part in a groundbreaking new online forum that was launched today, BigThink.com. The site finds ‘experts’ in various fields and invites them to give candid interviews on a variety of topics. For a more indepth look, check out an article from the New York Times here.

Justice Breyer has always been one of the Justices most willing to speak to the public (his previous position, a Harvard professorship, is thought to be largely to blame for his openness to academic discussion.) Justice Breyer has an incredible sense of ‘good versus bad’ and it seems to influence his entire method of interpretation. Here he espouses the belief that the world is split into two realms- the forces of reason and the forces of non-reason, and judges and lawyers are part of the ‘forces of reason.’

I’ve always heard that Justice Breyer has a romantic view of the law but I never thought that he was so extreme in his views. When asked about his legal philosophy, he replied that he would strike down a government action if it forced him to say ‘my god, this is wrong.’

I’m not sure that its fair to simply his philosophy into a few words, but he certainly seems to be off his rocker when he makes silly statements like that. Regardless, his entry on BigThink is worth your time (as is the entire site.)